The Gift is in the Mail

I created this video tonight using some of the pictures I've taken of Neal over the past 6 years. Amazingly, this is not all of the goofy ones, just the first 3:21 worth that I came across. Sometimes I forget how much he makes me laugh on the daily. Usually, I get one shot to capture the funny and then he gets serious again. I've developed a very quick trigger finger.

This is Neal's third birthday that he has spent serving our country in either Iraq or Kuwait. And we can't even count all the birthdays he has spent training, drilling, or going to mandatory schools. Mama Virgo and I take off on our birthdays - we do everything short of declaring it a national holiday. But Neal just laces up his boots, slides on his sunglasses, and starts another day. And honestly, he would not have it any other way.

The video is a collage of Neal's greatest, set to Devil Take My Soul, by Son of Dave. What I really wanted was Blues Brothers' Soul Man...but YouTube is being all hallway monitor about music files (even though I just purchased it from iTunes an hour ago). Dear LimeWire users, you ruined it for all of us. Anyway, this was a "YouTube approved" song and it works too. Like Neal, it's funky, jazzy, and just a little bit dirty.

And even if you don't get a chance to watch the video, please leave him a birthday wish in the comments section. I'm sorry I no longer accept anonymous comments, but if you don't have or don't want a Google ID, then shoot me a note on Facebook and I'll make sure he gets it. It's hard to have the best birthday ever when you've just landed in a war zone, but maybe we can rock the comments so he feels the lurve from 1000 miles away!

PS I apologize for the distracting "Konica Minolta" text that keeps popping up. It it wasn't 2:30 AM and I hadn't just tried to load this video 8 times on YouTube, I would try to fix it. But maybe you can just think of it as anything with "Minolta" is back in the day. Our fancyschmancy Canon doesn't do that crap.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEAL!!!